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Investigation Determines A Cleaning Cloth Was In Off-Duty Officer’s Drink, Not A Tampon

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The suspected tampon found in an off-duty Los Angeles police officer’s Starbucks drink in June was likely a cleaning cloth, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said in a press release Tuesday.

The barista who made the drink said a cleaning cloth was accidentally blended in with the drink after falling in ice, the sheriff’s department sources told Fox11. The sheriff’s department determined that what initially was reported as a tampon was more likely a cleaning cloth, and that there was no “malicious intent” in the incident, according to the sheriff’s department press release.

UPDATE: LASD investigation closed. I’m told the barista said she accidentally scooped up a cleaning cloth that fell in ice, then blended it into officer’s drink. Officer thought it was something malicious. No tampering, no hoax. Barista apologetic. https://t.co/jr0ZOV3bgY @FOXLA

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) July 29, 2020

The investigators determined that “it was not a tampon,” Deputy Grace Madrano told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email, “based on the evidence presented by all parties.”

Madrano told the DCNF the sheriff’s department had no further comment and would not release the name of the employee.

A Los Angeles Police Department officer reportedly found what he thought was a tampon while drinking a frappuchino he bought from a Starbucks in Diamond Bar on June 19, Fox LA reporter Bill Melugin said on Twitter the following Monday. The Starbucks was inside a Target and the officer had used a police union debit card to buy the frappuchino.

The sheriff’s department investigated the incident as “an alleged poisoning of food or drink at a local business,” Deputy Officer Trina Schrader told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is now reviewing the case, the press release reported.